Qigong For Women with Lisa B. O’Shea

Qigong For Women: Ancient healing wisdom for modern women with Lisa B. O’Shea is an excellent qigong resource for women who are interested in bettering their health through this ancient Chinese practice. O’Shea is a certified YMAA qigong master, a certified qigong therapist with the Chinese Healing Arts Center, and is certified in reiki and hypnotherapy. She also operates the Qigong Institute of Rochester.  However, the most important thing for purposes of this DVD is that she speaks well and knows how to teach this information to help the viewer learn at home.

Obviously, being a man, I’m not the target market for this DVD. However, my wife and I both have studied and practiced qigong, so while the DVD was primarily for her, I watched it too to learn more about qigong and improve my knowledge. (And there are things in this DVD that would help men too.)

Like most of the DVDs by YMAA, this program contains a lot of information. The program is 217 minutes long. I’d suggest watching in sessions. Before O’Shea gets to the specific qigong exercises, she begins with a nice introduction explaining why the DVD focuses on women and their health and concerns, and then discusses TCM and 5 Elements Theory and Healthy Balance Qigong. (This is a special set of exercises that O’Shea put together to clear out blockages in the body and increase the qi flow to improve health.

The exercises are divided into three main sets. These include the chest set, the abdomen set, and the kidney set. These can be done alone, or all three sets can be done together. For each of these sets, O’Shea does a great job of explaining and discussing the set and what it does before going into the actual instruction of the exercises and movements. After she has explained all of the exercises in a set, O’Shea talks you through a set as she performs the movements with you.  Once learned, a viewer could skip right to this portion of the DVD and perform the movements along with O’Shea. (Additionally, there is a menu option from the main menu to jump right to these exercise sets.)

If you want to combine sets, O’Shea teaches how to do that as well. There is a segment on the DVD where you can follow along with O’Shea as she performs the entire  Healthy Balance Qigong set of movements. Once a person learns everything on the DVD, this would be the segment most viewed when wanting to incorporate regular qigong practice into your healthy lifestyle. While it is not necessarily a set that I would do on a regular basis, I think many women will benefit from regular practice of this form of qigong.

The final thing O’Shea teaches on this DVD is a short Yin Essence Meditation. She then ends with a short conclusion. Additionally, there are the YMAA extras that include information about YMAA and video previews of a few other programs.

O’Shea is an excellent instructor, and this program is ideal for women who want to learn a simple qigong routine specifically for women. Recommended highly for all women who want to learn qigong and for a better understanding of qigong to all qigong practitioners, regardless of gender.

Check out the DVD on amazon: